Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 76
August 1, 2016
What happened this month in history?
If It Happened Yesterday, It's History
The remarkable rise of a peasant boy named Petrus Sabbatius (Justinian I The Great), to the lofty heights of the imperial palace in Constantinople could not have happened if it wasn’t for his uncle Flavius Justinus (Justin). Escaping a life of poverty in Illyricum, Justin travelled on foot, all the way to Roman Empire’s political heart Constantinople, to join the army. His career...
24 Hours in Richmond
Just back from an abbreviated visit to Richmond, Virginia for a family event: shortened by the wild weather down there which grounded us in Boston on the evening of our departure. So everything was compressed: family time, touring time, time in our amazing hotel, The Jefferson, a monumental Italianate (its style is described alternatively as “Spanish Baroque” and eclectic; it seemed Italianate to me) palace in the heart of the city. Designed by the well-known architectural fir...
July 29, 2016
Round Dikes Earthwork, Addingham Low Moor, West Yorkshire
Round Dikes on Addingham Low Moor (from above).
OS grid reference: SE 0551 5012. Quite a substantial Iron Age earth-work situated below Counter Hill on Addingham Low Moor, West Yorkshire, that is locally called ‘Round Dikes’, ‘Round Dikes Camp’ and ‘Round Dikes Settlement’. This enclosed and almost oval-shaped earthwork on the moors to the east of Crossbank Road alsosupports a Bronze Age burial mound, but unfortunately this is now badly muti-lated. There are tra...
Killed By Torture? The Story of an 18-Year-Old Irishman’s Death at the Hands of his Officers, New Orleans, 1865
Irish in the American Civil War
In May 1860, 47-year-old Bridget Griffin stepped off the boat in the United States. Her husband John had died in their native Athlone in 1859, an event that likely precipitated her departure. With her was her 13-year-old son Patrick, a boy who grew to manhood during the years of the American Civil War. He would serve during that conflict, initially withthe 15th Massachusetts Light Artilleryand later in the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery. June 1865 found him...
Thomas Eakins: Photography and Science
On the 25th of July 1844, American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator Thomas Eakins was born in Philadelphia, U.S. Sometimes called America’s greatest painter, Eakins conducted many scientific investigations in anatomy, mathematics, perspective, and photography, which were vital to his art. He used photography as both a science and an art. In addition to his famous studies of animal locomotion with Eadweard Muybridge, Eakins alsocreated other formsof p...
July 28, 2016
Friends, Steampunks, Bloggers, Lend me Your URL!
The Airship Ambassador has a huge list of Steampunk blogs and websites on his site, but as I combed through them I found the majority are defunct. I decided to devote a page here at For Whom the Gear Turns to the sites that I have discovered that are still going strong, and to open the floor to anybody who’d like to get added to my list.
I’m especially looking for sites that share interests with this blog, such as book and movie reviews, fun historical facts from the...
The Elephant’s Graveyard of Tin
Not very far away in space or time, the Elephants’ Graveyard of Tin, poem by K. Peddlar Bridges, Music and video by Tammy Murawski through Ipswich ICAM.
July 27, 2016
Historic Photo: Soldier on the Western Front, 1918, colorized.
In my last entry in the “Historic Photo” series, I presented a stunning image of commerce on the New York City waterfront, circa 1900, which was originally taken in black-and-white but colorized in 2016 by digital artist Marina Amaral. That article was the most successful and popular post I did that week, and as there’s lots more where it came from I decided to bring you another of Marina’s magnificent colorizations. This picture depicts a British soldier in a trench on t...
Track of the Day – THE AMORETTES ‘Let The Neighbours Call The Cops’
The Amorettes just released a smashing good album called ‘White Hot Heat’, and this tune and video is a great example of the band’s gutsy, brawny brand of rock and roll.
In September, The Amorettesheads out on tour with Love Zombies, but they have several gigs inthe UKbefore that –check out the website for all the details.
Read my review of White Hot Heat.
The Amorettes official website / Facebook / Twitter
The man who fought Indians, Mexicans, Yankees and himself
Next year will mark the 200th anniversary of one of the Confederacy’s greatest foes: General Braxton Bragg. Unfortunate for the Southern cause was the fact that Bragg woreConfederate gray.
Bragg, born March 22, 1817, in North Carolina, was a key Southern commander in the Western Theater and later an important military advisor to the Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Although West Point-educated and active in the Seminole and Mexican-American wars, Bragg prove...
